


flying planes with paper wheels to the same Achilles’ heels

by sunburst_city



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 20:14:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7188500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunburst_city/pseuds/sunburst_city
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For someone who claims to want no part in the idea of soulmates, Annabeth’s life seems to revolve around it quite often.</p>
<p>
  <em>Trigger warning for suicide of a minor character. It isn’t explicit but still.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	flying planes with paper wheels to the same Achilles’ heels

In this life, there is only one person who gets to be your other half, and this is decided the moment you are born.

At birth, each person is Marked with something similar to a tattoo on their body. It can be an inscription, an image, or even something as straightforward as a full name. Whatever it is, the Mark is supposed to lead you to your soulmate.

Annabeth Chase does not believe in the concept of soulmates.

To her, having her other half decided for her the moment she was born isn’t hopeful or reassuring like those stupid soulmate commercials peg it as. To her, it’s suffocating and controlling. It’s Fate and the universe trying to take her choices away from her. 

So she tells herself that, no, she will not look for her soulmate. In fact, a small part of her even wants to swear that she won’t end up with her soulmate, just to prove a point. Whenever she tells people about this, they give her bemused looks, like they thought she was breaking some sort of unspoken law.

Well, she has always been a little rebellious; what difference does this make?

–

She’s twelve when she meets Percy Jackson, and by then, she’s already had so many reasons not to believe in the Marks.

Her mom and dad are supposed to be soulmates, if the matching Lincoln quotes on their left wrists is anything to go by; but Athena leaves when Annabeth is six. After that, her dad remarries a woman named Helen (obviously _not_ his soulmate), and Annabeth gets a step-brother a year later, and another one less than a year after that. Now, she’s stuck with a pair of might-as-well-be-twins who annoy the living snot out of her, a step-mom who has a neurotic tendency to always blame her when the boys cause trouble, and a distant, awkward dad who seems to have forgotten how to interact with his only daughter and who, more often than not, takes his wife’s side of the argument. If this soulmate business is the real deal, then her mom would have stayed, and Annabeth wouldn’t feel like such an unwanted stranger in her own family.

And then, there’s Luke and Thalia, two of her friends who somehow always fail to get it right. Annabeth meets them one day in the public library while waiting for her father to pick her up. Thalia is spunky and wears entirely too much eyeliner for a twelve-year-old; but she is sisterly and motherly in a way Annabeth never felt from Helen. Luke, meanwhile, is tall and boyishly charming, and Annabeth is a little starry-eyed; but she knows nothing will come out of her little crush, and it’s not just because of the seven-year age gap. Even as a seven-year-old, Annabeth can already see the way her friends skirt around each other, affectionate yet awkward in their expression. And when they stand next to each other just so, she can see the Mark on Thalia’s collarbone fit snugly against the one on Luke’s inner arm.

But there is a reason why they’ve become a cautionary tale for Annabeth. There have been so many times when she sees one of them try to tell the other about their feelings, but somehing always messes it up. Sometimes, Luke has to rush home just as Thalia is about to come clean; sometimes it’s the other way around. Sometimes, either one of them just chickens out halfway through. At first, Annabeth finds it the tiniest bit amusing, but she wishes they would just get on it already so she can finally point out that their Marks fit like puzzle pieces (not that it mattered to any of them – her friends care about soulmates even less than she does – but she knew it would give them a good laugh).

A few months after she meets her best friends, she thinks Luke is finally going to do it. But then, on the same day, Thalia gets into a car accident, leaving her in a coma. Annabeth has known both the Luke before the accident and the Luke after, and if this is what it means to meet your soulmate but lose them, to end up becoming just a half-hearted shell of who you used to be, she wants no part of it.

So, when this twelve-year-old kid introduces himself to her as Percy Jackson in her sixth-grade English class and starts spouting on about how he can’t wait to find his soulmate, she’s decidedly unimpressed and can honestly care no less. She tells him this and expects him to leave her alone; but all he does is shrug and moves on to ask if it was just him or if the words on his assigned reading were actually doing barrel rolls off the page.

A month later, when he punches Matt Sloan for calling her a weirdo who doesn’t believe in soulmates because her Mark (which nobody in school apart from her has seen) “is probably gross or something,” he becomes her best friend.

–

It’s more than a little strange that she ends up having a best friend who puts so much hope and belief into whoever shares his Mark when she can’t give a crap about hers; but they make it work.

Two years down the line, their friendship is one where they’re both so comfortable with each other that there are no secrets between them, which is why it comes as a surprise to Annabeth when she realizes that she’s never seen Percy’s Mark. Well, he hasn’t seen hers, either; but the girls at school who are really gung-ho about finding their soulmate flash their Marks to anyone who’ll listen. Annabeth doesn’t think Percy will go to that extent, but she still assumed that, since he wants to find his soulmate, he’d be eager to share his Mark, too, if at least to his friends.

She wonders if he doesn’t say anything as some sort of consideration for her views on soulmates, so she decides to bring it up during their weekly movie night at his house.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen your Mark.” She says, causing him to look away from the screen and at her. His brows furrow in confusion.

“You hate the whole soulmates thing.” He points out.

“Yeah, but you don’t.” She replies, “And what kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t support you?”

He practically glows when she says ‘best friend,’ and she can’t help but smile at that. She leans forward, eager as ever to learn something new. “So, can I see it?”

Beside her, Percy colors slightly. “Um, I’d rather not show you, actually. I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you; I do. It’s just that I’d rather keep this private, you know? It’s something I wanna share with… Her, whoever she is.”

Huh.

Annabeth snuggles closer to him, burying her freezing toes into the warmth under his leg and making him yelp. His neck is warm when she burrows her face against it. “You know, if there were more people like you, maybe I wouldn’t find the whole soulmates thing so stupid.”

A laugh escapes him. “Too bad, Wise Girl. I’m one of a kind.”

“How do you know it’s a 'her,’ though?”

He just laughs again. “Trust me, it’s a girl. I can feel it.”

–

Rachel Elizabeth Dare enters the picture when they’re freshmen.

Percy and Annabeth both choose to enter Goode High, mostly because Percy’s mom’s new boyfriend works there, and the school’s dyslexic program is pretty good. During freshman orientation, they sit next to a redheaded girl, and that’s how they meet Rachel Dare.

Rachel is like a bright streak of color, all bright green eyes and a fiery personality to match her red hair. Her artwork is as good as a professional artist’s, even though she’s only fifteen, with a passion that rival’s Annabeth’s love for architecture. By all means, she and Annabeth should get along; but Annabeth doesn’t like her.

Percy spends so much time with Rachel now, sometimes without Annabeth. It unnerves her. She and Percy had other friends when they were in middle school, yeah; but this is the first time it’s come between them.

It feels like Rachel is taking Annabeth’s best friend away from her, and she hates it.

–

Luke continues to send her letters while he goes to college.

She’s glad he does, because while she’ll never admit it, she sometimes feels insanely lonely. She barely sees Percy anymore since he and Rachel started dating _(dating! They weren’t even sophomores yet!)_ last month. 

It’s not like she can hang out with her family, either; while her relationship with her father has improved in recent years, Annabeth still doesn’t feel comfortable enough to spend long amounts of time with him. There is a reason why she chooses to stay in a dorm instead of her own house, after all.

Luke’s letters remind her that there is someone who cares enough just to ask how her week is going, and if she’s finally joined the track team like he told her to.

She worries about Luke, though. He probably thinks she can’t tell, but she knows something’s wrong. And whenever they get to talk on the phone, he always sounds so tired and… empty. She always tries to cheer him up, but all she gets in return are halfhearted huffs. She hopes he can snap out of his funk soon. Out of everyone in her life, Luke deserves to be happy.

–

About five months after Percy and Rachel start dating, Rachel turns up on Annabeth’s doorstep, glassy eyed and barely holding it together. She manages to sputter out that she and Percy broke up, and Annabeth instantly forgets that they’ve stopped talking a few weeks back.

(She isn’t quite certain if she’s talking to Rachel again because the other girl has finally broken up with Percy, or what that says about her if that really is the case, but she can’t dwell on that right now. Rachel needs her.)

Annabeth steers the redhead towards the couch. Rachel blubbers a mess of jumbled sentences: 'Sorry for barging in like this, I didn’t know who else to go to,’ and 'I don’t understand– I mean I understand _why,_ but it still   _hurts,_ you know?’ Annabeth tries her best to soothe Rachel’s nerves, but the best she can do is wrap her arms around the redhead and wait until Rachel’s sobs die down.

Eventually, Rachel’s crying softens until they become sniffles, and then nothing at all. Her head rests on Annabeth’s shoulder, hiding her face as she wipes at her eyes. It surprises Annabeth when the first thing out of Rachel’s mouth once she’s calmed down is, “Sorry for keeping him away from you.”

Annabeth thinks she did a pretty good job of hiding it, but if Rachel is commenting on it, that apparently isn’t the case. “You were his girlfriend,” She says, then cuts off abruptly. She doesn’t know where she is going with that trail of thought, anyway. 

“Yeah, but you’re his best friend.” Rachel says, and Annabeth doesn’t know how to reply to that, so she doesn’t.

After a few minutes of composing herself, Rachel leaves with a watery smile on her face.

–

Fifteen minutes after Rachel’s left, Percy knocks on the door to her dorm room with a tub of ice cream. Wordlessly, she lets him in, and they spend the next few hours watching Disney movies and gorging on chocolate overload ice cream, just like they used to when they were fourteen.

They finish Aladdin without talking and they’re halfway through Hercules when she speaks.

“I’m sorry about Rachel.” She says. Percy just shrugs half-heartedly, not even bothering to look away from the screen. Annabeth sighs, knowing that he needs to sort out his thoughts for now, so she keeps quiet for the meantime.

She barely lets the movie reach the credits before whirling around to face him. “Why did you two break up?”

At this, he drops all pretenses. He looks at the empty tub of ice cream on his lap and smiles sadly. “We didn’t match.”

It takes her a few seconds to realize he’s talking about their Marks; but when she does, Annabeth frowns. _That’s_ why they broke up? She recalls the way Rachel practically lights up whenever she’s with Percy, and how Percy always seemed revitalized after hanging out with Rachel, regardless of how tired he was before that. Her frown becomes more pronounced. “But you and Rachel were so happy together.”

“But she wasn’t… _Her,_ you know? Besides, that means there’s someone out there who’s made for Rachel, the same way there’s someone out there who’s made for me.”

Annabeth hesitates a bit, because she knows how he feels about soulmates, but she still needs to say her piece. “You know, maybe you should just give up on–”

“No,” Percy interrupts her, already shaking his head. Annabeth’s frown becomes more pronounced.

“I’m just saying, Perce. Rachel made you so happy; what does it matter if she isn’t–”

“It matters to me!” He says vehemently, and it startles her long enough for him to continue. “I won’t _ever_ give up on her.”

There’s a certain conviction in his tone that Annabeth’s never heard from him before, laced with something akin to devotion (she refuses to say it’s love) for a person he’s never even met.

It kind of makes her wish he was hers.

Annabeth startles at the unwelcome thought.

No. She can’t have a crush on Percy. Percy is her best friend. More importantly, he believes in soulmates; she doesn’t. They won’t work out.  
But that doesn’t stop that one traitorous moment where she thinks about what it would feel like to have his arm wrapped around her with her head tucked beneath his.

The movie stops playing, and Percy gets up to replace the Hercules disc with the Mulan one. They don’t bring up the conversation again. Minutes later, he’s humming along to “Honor to Us All” and nudging her in the ribs, trying to get her to sing along in an act of reconciliation.

She doesn’t ask if he showed Rachel his Mark. Honestly, she can’t decide if she wants to know.

–

Thalia wakes up from her coma on the same day Luke’s last letter turns up in Annabeth’s mail, less than an hour after his RA finds the suicide note next to his body.

Missed each other again.

–

Luke’s funeral is a small affair, and while it’s painful for Annabeth to say goodbye to her dearest friend, she finds it even harder to look Thalia in the eye.

Of course, someone has told Thalia about Luke’s Mark, about the bright blue streak of lightning that slots perfectly like a puzzle piece against the tips of the golden wing on her collarbone.

Throughout the funeral, Thalia is a strange, painful mixture of confused, angry, devastated, and hollow. The emotions flit wildly across her face as she stubbornly tries to rein them all under her poker face.

Annabeth has seen this behavior before. It’s reminiscent of the way the light never quite reached Luke’s eyes after the accident. Now that she has to watch the other half go through the same pain, it just reminds her of how she doesn’t want any part of this soulmates business.

–

Relearning how to be Thalia’s friend isn’t as hard as she thought it would be, and in three weeks, they’re talking like the older girl hasn’t just shot from being twelve to twenty-one.

Around this time, Annabeth finally meets Jason, Thalia’s younger brother. Jason used to live in San Francisco, but when he heard that Thalia had woken up, he practically blackmailed his step-mother into moving back to New York so he can be closer to his sister. He now attends Annabeth’s high school in the year below her, Percy, and Rachel.

Percy and Rachel are finally on non-awkward terms after the breakup, and it’s a weird friendship to watch evolve. They seem impossibly closer now than they were as boyfriend and girlfriend, laughing at a million inside jokes and leaning against each other when they’re seated next to each other. And after a particularly embarrassing conversation where Rachel bluntly tells Annabeth she’d never steal Percy away (how Rachel found out about Annabeth’s not-crush, Annabeth will never know), the two girls finally become close friends. Rachel is still the same: artistic and outspoken as she is pretty, but now she doesn’t grate on Annabeth’s nerves. They go to museums and libraries and bookstores and art stores together (and they’re both grateful that they _finally_ have someone who is willing to spend hours in those places, because when each of them used to go with Percy, he always whined or just found a corner to sleep in), and have girls’ nights with Thalia and Piper.

Jason sits with them at lunch and, after a week, brings along Piper and Leo, two of his classmates. For a while, this is what constitutes Annabeth’s life. Together, the six of them power through high school, and she couldn’t ask for more.

–

Two years later, Percy decides to go to college on the opposite side of the country. He’s heard a lot of good things about UCLA from Jason, who’s kept in touch with his friends on the West Coast. The swimming program, in particular, draws him in like no other. And once he gets a scholarship thanks to his records on the Goode Swim Team, there’s nothing stopping him.

Annabeth, on the other hand, opts to stay in New York and attend Columbia.

They haven’t had a sleepover since they were fourteen, but the night before Percy’s flight to the West Coast, their parents allow them to pile on in her living room couch, building blanket forts that are entirely too small for two almost-adults. Annabeth doesn’t mind the small space, and Percy doesn’t seem to, either, not even when he has to tuck her underneath his arm, or Annabeth’s cold feet burrow underneath his calves.

Later on in the night, when they’ve tired of watching movies, Percy quietly asks her to look out for his baby sister while he isn’t around. She replies with a scoff, because of course she will; Andie has become her sister as much as she is Percy’s. Percy makes her promise a bunch of other things as well – make sure Paul doesn’t overwork himself, help Sally out with proofreading her book, keep him posted on what happens in Annabeth’s life through Skype or calls or texts – things she would’ve done anyway even if he didn’t ask her to.

Just before they drift off to sleep, Annabeth whispers, “don’t forget me, okay?”

From his spot beneath her, he quietly huffs. “I couldn’t if I tried.”

The next day, it’s only through the combined effort of both of their parents that they manage to wake up and untangle themselves in time for them to head for the airport. Once they reach the beginning of the passengers-only area, Percy says his goodbyes. He tosses Andie into the air, kissing her on the cheek when she starts crying, not ready to part from her big brother. He brings Paul into a hug and hugs his mom even longer, placing a kiss on her forehead as he pulls away. 

He leaves Annabeth for last, and when he finally reaches her, he practically tries to squeeze the life out of her, wrapping his arms tight around her and burying his face into her curly hair. Annabeth gives as good as she gets, trying to make his hug last for the next few months they’ll be apart.

–

When Percy comes home for Christmas break in his first year of being away, he’s… different. He’s taller and tanner, and his shoulders are broader than Annabeth remembers. When he lifts her up in a bear hug and clumsily spins her around, she can feel the strength of his arms and the warmth of his heartbeat through his shirt, and she can only hope that he doesn’t feel her own heartbeat pick up its pace.

She asks him teasingly if he’s found his soulmate while out in the West Coast, and   _no,_ Annabeth most certainly does not feel relief when he shakes his head no.

Over lunch, he talks animatedly about the people he met and the fact that   _I can go surfing any time I want, Wise Girl! How cool is that?_ For a moment, Annabeth thinks he’s moved on without her. It’s a selfish thought, but Percy has been the one constant in her life for almost a decade; to have that taken from her, for him to leave her behind and not need her anymore–the thought is unbearable.

But when he eagerly asks her what she’s been doing and when he introduces her to his friends from UCLA when they Skype that weekend, Annabeth’s worries disappear. It’s always been them against the world; Annabeth was stupid to think that a little distance would change that.

–

Out of Percy’s UCLA buddies, Annabeth likes Reyna the most.

Granted, Hazel and Frank are the sweetest people she’s ever met; but she gets along with Reyna like nobody else, probably because they’re so alike. Maybe not in appearance, yeah, but their ambitious, overachieving-to-the-point-of-being-intimidating nature and strong will? It’s almost like looking in a mirror. There’s even a running joke in their group of friends that Percy only befriended Reyna in the beginning because he missed Annabeth so much. Annabeth doesn’t miss the opportunity to tease Percy once she hears this.

The time Annabeth spends talking to Reyna while visiting Percy during Spring Break cements this idea even more, as they seem to share similar opinions about a lot of things. Eventually, the topic moves to soulmates when Percy teases Frank and Hazel about theirs, and Annabeth curiously asks Reyna what her take on the Marks is.

Nothing floors her quite like finding out Reyna’s soulmate is Jason Grace, who’s been Piper’s boyfriend for the better half of three years now.

Reyna shows her the Latin quote on the inside of her wrist, tells her that it’s only half-finished and that the other half rests on Jason’s forearm.

Just when Annabeth thinks things can’t get any weirder, she finds out Piper and Leo are soulmates as well.

Excitement swells within Annabeth. See, this is proof that the soulmates thing is a huge joke! She tells Reyna this, expecting the other girl to eagerly agree. But what she gets is nothing like that at all.

Reyna’s eyes flash in surprise and confusion and she glances quickly at Percy; but before Annabeth can ask what that’s about, Reyna schools her expression to neutrality.

“Sure, some soulmates don’t work out; but that doesn’t mean that none of them do.” She says, before smoothly changing the subject, asking Annabeth about considering taking architecture classes at UCLA as an exchange student for the summer term. At this point, Frank overhears their conversation and joins in, and Annabeth’s too excited over the anecdotes Frank is sharing to remember Reyna’s loaded look.

–

She kisses Percy during a party.

It’s New Year’s Eve, in the middle of their third year of college. Percy is home for the holidays once again, and Sally has thrown a small party following the success of her third published novel, inviting her editor and other friends from the publishing house, some of Paul’s coworkers (some of whom were Percy and Annabeth’s high school teachers, weird), and the Chases. Annabeth and Percy are the only ones their age in attendance, but they’d still probably be attached at the hip even if that weren’t the case.

They’re on the couch, chatting aimlessly while looking out into the crowd, when the countdown begins. People begin flocking towards their loved ones while they chant. Annabeth spots Paul heading towards Sally with their daughter in tow, and Bobby and Matthew yelling excitedly in the corner.

The coundown reaches zero, and everyone yells “Happy New Year!” Percy and Annabeth turn their heads towards each other at the same time, and it’s almost like they both conveniently forget that they’re just best friends. Without preamble, without explanation, their lips slot together, and it’s so _easy_. Percy’s thumb traces light circles on the hand he’s been playing with since before the countdown. Meanwhile, Annabeth’s other hand ghosts across his wrist, feeling his erratic pulse beneath her fingertips.

And then Percy’s little sister launches herself at him.

Percy laughs, pulling away from Annabeth. He proceeds to pepper Andie’s face with loud, exaggerated kisses, making the little girl squeal and Annabeth laugh. Once he’s done, Andie reaches over to kiss Annabeth on the cheek. Annabeth smiles and returns the gesture of affection with one of her own.  
Percy is smiling gently at her, with a sort of fondness she’s never seen on him before. He presses a kiss against Annabeth’s cheek – like he normally gives her every New Year – whispers “Happy new year,” and gets up to go find his mom, bringing his sister with him. Bobby and Matthew take this time to dogpile onto her on the couch, and Annabeth is swept in the boys’ joy and the fact that she finally no longer feels alienated in her own family.

The kiss is never brought up afterwards.

–

A year after college, and they might as well be living together. Their apartments are right across from each other’s, and they have a copy of each other’s key. 

Tonight, they’re at their gang’s favorite haunt, celebrating Hazel’s acceptance into NYU’s medical program and Percy’s promotion. Frank and Reyna have visited New York to help Hazel move in, and it’s amazing to finally see all their friends together in one place. Amazing, and slightly crazy. Their friends are kind of insane, and Annabeth makes that conclusion even before the drinks start coming.

Annabeth doesn’t remember how she and Percy got home after a fun but exhausting night, but they must have gotten back somehow, because the next morning, she wakes up in her bed, with her best friend lying half-naked next to her.

It’s not the first time this happened. Granted, she doesn’t know any other friendship like theirs, and it’s a bit (a lot) muddled with some (or quite possibly a hefty amount of) attraction on her side. This–waking up in each other’s beds because one of them was too lazy to make the short trek to their own apartment–this is normal for them. Years of being best friends have blurred the lines of privacy and personal space, and neither of them mind that much. Annabeth has even learned to live with the fact that Percy will drool all over his pillow (the one she’s designated for him, precisely because of said drool).

Beside her, Percy grumbles in his sleep, turning until he lies on his stomach and his arms are tucked beneath the pillow his head rests on.

Thanks to his new position, she spots the tattoo he told her he got on a drunk night out while Rachel visited him in the West Coast: a trident on the small of his back, right where his spine begins to dip. It’s always fascinated Annabeth with it’s bold colors and intricate detail; but Percy never shows it to her for very long, claiming embarrassment over getting wasted enough to get a tattoo. As she traces the swirls on the trident’s staff, she notices that the details are actually letters. Curiously, she moves closer to read the inscription.

_As long as we’re together._

Annabeth feels her blood run cold.

She knows those words well. She’s seen it in the mirror everyday, gently sloping down the hollow of her hip. And now she finds the exact same script running down the length of her best friend’s spine, on what he claims to be an alcohol-induced decision.

Drunken night out, her ass. He planned the tattoo to hide his Mark. That’s why he never lets her look at it for very long.

It’s stupid, but the next thing that runs through her mind isn’t even ’ _holy shit Percy is her soulmate.’_ Instead, it’s a stream of thought that goes something like _'Rachel went with him to get this tattoo. Rachel has probably seen his Mark. Rachel saw his Mark and she knows Annabeth’s and that’s how Percy found out and_ oh god _Rachel saw his Mark before Annabeth got to and how the_ fuck _is any of that fair–’_

“What’re you doing? That tickles.” Percy mumbles sleepily, making Annabeth realize that she was still running her fingertips over the words on his tattoo. She pinpoints the exact moment he realizes what she’s tracing, because he suddenly tenses and tilts his head to face the direction away from her.

If there was any doubt left in her mind that this isn’t Percy’s Mark before this, there’s absolutely none now.

The apartment is strangely quiet. Annabeth figures it shouldn’t, because her mind is racing a thousand miles a minute and there is _so much_ that’s unsaid between them.

“How long.” She eventually says, and it’s not even a question.

Percy slowly peels himself off of the mattress until he’s sitting at the foot of the bed, his body facing her but his eyes refusing to meet hers.

“How long, what?” He tries. Abruptly, she sits up.

“Don’t even play this game with me, Perce!” She nearly screams, making him flinch. “How long have you known?”

“I’ve had a hunch since junior year; but I was sure of it a few weeks before we graduated high school.” He admits, his cheeks coloring slightly. Annabeth thinks back to what they were doing that could’ve possibly– oh.

Piper’s beach party. Leo dared Percy to take a body shot off of Annabeth, and without putting much thought to it, she agreed, even when Leo spilled the salt everywhere and she needed to slightly slide one side of her bikini bottoms down for Percy to catch all the salt with his tongue. She assumed he was acting weird afterwards because he was embarrassed; she never thought it was because he saw her Mark. After all, the Mark didn’t mean anything to her, and she assumed it was the same for him.

Annabeth inhales sharply. That was six years ago. _Six years._

“Why didn’t you say anything?” She demands.

He avoids her gaze, and his voice is small when he replies. “You said you didn’t want to be with your soulmate. I figured that if I told you, you’d steer clear of me, and I couldn’t deal with that. I didn’t want to lose you.”

“You wouldn’t have.” Is what she immediately replies; but she stops and tries to imagine it. She tries to imagine what would have happened had Percy told her about it during high school. She would’ve avoided him like the plague out of sheer stubbornness to hold onto her belief and, once graduation was over, she would’ve cut all ties with him. She tries to imagine a life without Percy Jackson: never becoming friends Reyna or Frank or Hazel, never getting lifted and spun in a bear hug in the airport, never living a door away from her best friend. The ache in her chest is like a gaping void, worse than all the heartbreak she’s ever felt combined.

Percy’s look of blank skepticism tells her that he knows exactly what she would’ve done, and it makes something in her soar and break at the same time, to see how much this boy knows her.

She thinks back to all the times he’d cheered her up, saying things like “We’re okay” and “to hell with other people; we’ve got each other” and “it’s you and me against the world, Wise Girl. Always.” All this time, he’s known that they were soulmates and has had to deal with Annabeth not knowing anything about it.

“Hey, it’s okay, alright? This changes nothing.” He tells her. He must’ve seen her troubled, faraway look, because he continues to babble on, “I mean, I’ve had a crush on you since I was, like, thirteen, anyway–”

This gets Annabeth’s attention. “You _what?”_

Percy quicky backtracks his words in his head and winces. “Today just isn’t my day, is it.”

Annabeth’s mind reels with this newfound information.

“Do you want me to go?” He offers, though the badly-hidden pained look on his face tells her he doesn’t want to. Wordlessly, she shakes her head, and he slouches back into an awkward slump at the foot of her bed. He sits there and waits as Annabeth works through her shock.

Oh, god, Percy likes her. Percy is her soulmate and Percy likes her _back_ and she fell in love with her soulmate without ever meaning to.

For a moment, her mind latches onto the word _soulmates_ , and she’s reminded of why she never wanted to find her soulmate in the first place. She thinks of her parents and Luke and Thalia, remembers all the pain they went through, pain that she doesn’t want to deal with at all.

But then again, this is _Percy:_ the stupid, wonderful boy who has put his entire heart into finding his soulmate, who is willing to throw all that away because his soulmate is someone who doesn’t believe in the Marks, who probably never planned to tell Annabeth at all. At once, Annabeth feels a surge of affection for him. 

_But the marks,_ a voice in her head insists. She’s spent her entire life not wanting her love to be dictated by the Marks; by this point, being with Percy almost seems like giving in.

But then, she thinks: isn’t their situation now the same thing, just in reverse? If she chooses  _not_ tobe with the boy she loves precisely because he’s her soulmate, then her life is still controlled by the Marks. And if there is one thing Annabeth is sure of, it’s that she loves Percy Jackson. She isn’t sure when her feelings for him started to become irrevocable love, but she’s liked him ever since they were teenagers who were too young to understand what love is. And if Percy’s been crushing on her for that long as well…

What have they been waiting for, then?

Mind made up, she grips his shoulders firmly, and Percy hunches in on himself, like he’s expecting bad news. Noticing this, Annabeth softens her actions, gently nudging him backward until his back meets the soft sheets. She lays partway on top of him, resting her head in the dip between his neck and shoulder. 

“Annabeth…?”

“Shut up for a minute, Perce. Just… Let’s just stay like this for a bit.”

Percy hesitantly rests his hands on her back. She can feel the weight of his stare at the crown of her head.

“I can practically hear you worrying, Seaweed Brain.” She manages to huff out a laugh before burying her face in the warmth of his neck, the way she’s been doing since they were awkward teenagers. “Relax.” She says, even though her own heart was threatening to beat right out of her chest.

“You’re not going to bolt the minute I relax, are you?” He says it jokingly, but Annabeth has known him for years, and she can hear the undercurrent of worry he tries to hide. She lifts her head to look at him.

“No, I wouldn’t do that, not to you.” She says softly.

Percy loosens up a bit after she says that. She takes a deep breath before her hand reaches down to find his, her slim fingers tangling with his larger ones. Another deep, steadying breath, and she says, "As long as we’re together, right?“

The answering grin Percy gives her is brighter than the sunlight filtering through the curtains. His eyes have that same determined devotion they always get when he’s talking about his soulmate, except now it’s directed at _her_ , and she can only hope that he sees the same intensity in her eyes.

And that’s when she realizes it. The Marks were never supposed to be constricting, nor were they supposed to be a done deal. In the end, it would all still boil down to the choices people make. Her parents relied too much on the Mark to keep them together, and the lack of action on their part to fix their relationship was what ultimately destroyed it. And Luke and Thalia _were_ going to get it right one day (maybe, and it absolutely pains Annabeth to even think about this, that could’ve been immediately after Thalia woke up), but Luke acted too soon. It’s the way Jason chose to be with Piper and not Reyna, the way Jason and Reyna and Piper and Leo chose to keep their relationships strictly platonic.

And even though the Mark ties her to the most amazing person she’s ever met, Annabeth Chase still doesn’t believe in soulmates. Because even in a world without the Mark–even if they lived in a different world full of monsters and gods, or a world where Fate actually does the complete opposite and continuosly tries to keep them apart–she’s sure she’ll choose Percy all the same.


End file.
